The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-02-05

few short hours unrefreshed and worn 81
to face another days toll The greatdI
comfort she had was her eldest chvl
Ernest, now nearly twelve years 81
Young as he was, he saw with genuilt
| concern that the mother he had once kno al
so beautiful and so happy was becoml /
aged and worn out before her time, and t III
for him and his brothers and sister Foill
long while he helped her in the house. xii
errands and did the hard work amidst tot
knives and boots and Goals in the basemel ii
but one day he said to her:
Mother | think l can do more for YOU
out of doors than l can here, and my two
brothers can help me. Will you lot US try
for weekF"
Without the smallest notion of the nature
Of the boys intentions Mrs. Burnett gave
her consent, and the trio sailed forth. Each
night during the week they returned with
joyful faces and placed a small sum of
money in their mothers hands She did
not ask them whence it came or how thew
earned it, for she knew by their happiness
and pride that it was honestly and fairly
won, so the weeks leave was extended to a
month, until their success was so great that
during all that year the bidding her three
children "Good- bye" in the morning, and
the welcoming them home at night, became
the bright epochs in the poor woman's life.
But a further trial was in store for her
One of her dodgers was attacked by typhoid
fever, and, although he recovered, of course
the other occupants of rooms fed in dis
may, and the report was spread abroad that
the drains were wrong and the house I'M
healthy, so that during long weeks the
cards in the windows were never taken
down. Existence upon the compare
lively trifiing sum Of money which
Ernest and his brothers brought homo
Of an evening was, of course, i'm
possible, and once again Mrs. Burnett felt
the bitterness of despair and the tr1th of
the saying that the edges of the world are
very rough to those who have to keep them
selves. Indeed, at this time the prospect
seemed blacker than at any previors period
of her trouble, for hitherto she had always
something upon which to depend, )ut now,
when the future really appeared II be get
ting brighter, this great cloud srose and
blotted out all hope.
Just at this time vast number of colo
malls were attracted to the old country by
the exhibition at South Kenshgton, and
among the jovial crowd which arrived in
the good steamer Parramatta was one man
who, from his strange reserve md unwill-
ingness to join in the general lilarity and
enjoyment, had won for himsef the sobri-
quet of "Dismal Jimmy" 1t would have
been difficult for the most expert eye to
have recognized in the person Of "Dismal
jimmy the cowed, heart-brsken, prema-
turely-aged Ernest Burnett, Who had bid
farewell to his wife and children seven
long years before on the steps Of the villa
at Eltheath; yet Ernest Burnett it was, in
spite of the thick beard, broIze1 face, and
developed torso. Who or what he was no.
body on the steamer knew, except that he
called himself Fleming, and that he had
'made his pile" in the 'Never Never Land"
otherwise known as Tasmania.
Most of the passengers unwilling to
break up jolly party before it was abso-
lutely necessary, instead OF disembarklng
at Southampton preferred to go on to
Gravesend in the steamer; but Burnett
whose extreme anxiety to reach England
had been the subject Of much comment,
and not little mirth, went ashore at South
ampton, and sped by the first express to
London. Successful as he had been during
his exile, the wild secluded life he had led
among the mineral districts of the colony
had by no means cured him Of the habitual
reserve and constituencies which charac-
terized him as business man in London;
SO that although his position and
means warranted him in putting up at any
of the great hotels affected by his fellow
passengers, he preferred the quiet and Sc
clusion of quiet lodging More especially
was this suitable to him, as his one idea in
returning to England was to find out the
whereabouts, or to get news of the poor
wife and the children he had left. OF
course he went to Eltheath, but the pleas
ant little suburb had grown into a vast vel
low town; the very names of the shop keep
ers had changed since his day, and he hard
ly knew to whom to apply for information;
so that all he could learn was that Mrs
Burnett had left the neighborhood some
years previously, and was supposed to BIO
in London. To set to work to discover in
vast London the whereabouts of a wife of
whose very existence there were doubts
would DO an almost hopeless task for any
man; but to Ernest Burnett it was doubly
difficult, as the very publicity which news
paper advertisement and police inquiry
wonld lead to was what he most wished to
avoid.
For more than week he wandered about
on the mere chance of picking up news,
and had almost made up his mind that he
would be obliged to advertise, when one
wild, wet afternoon, as he was weighing
the matter in his mind and gazing
out in the dreary street, his ear
caught the sound Of music played in a
style very unusual among itinerant pro-
fessors. AS the sounds approached he saw
that the performers were three little boys,
poorly, but respectfully clad, two of whom
played violin and flute, while the third, a
mere urchin of nine, accompanied them
with his voice. Ernest Burnett had not lis
tened to q chord Of music since he left En-
gland, unless the rollicking chorus Of the
Parrametta smoke-room could be called
music, but there was something, both in
the plaintive style of the music played and
in the voice of the little singer, which car
ried him back over long years and brought
up before him the picture of snug draw
ing-room and of dearly beloved wife
seated at the piano, singing to him in that
very voice to which he was listening.
He was in hopes that the musicians would
pass by the window, but he heard an angry
voice bid them go away and not disturb
people with their noise, and they turned
back in the direction whence they had come.
He, however, hastily ran out to the doorstep
and threw half crown toward the leader of
the trio, who was casting wistful chances at
the windows about in the hope that some
stray coppers might be bestowed by plying
hands. The boy was moving toward the coin
wing on the ground when the fipura of n